Country Garden Wedding

Garden Wedding, Kent Weddings, Tunbridge Wells Wedding

Does it get any more lovely than a beautifully manicured country garden? Add to it some gorgeous September sunshine and a wedding with classic styling, and you have magic!

Rebecca and Haydn’s Tunbridge Wells country garden wedding was genuinely dreamy and one of the most beautiful garden weddings I’ve ever photographed. The garden in question belonged to the brides’ parents, and this typical English country garden, in all its floral loveliness, was the perfect setting for the couples marquee wedding reception.

Bride and Groom getting ready

I arrived to find Rebecca having her hair teased into shape by the lovely Liz from Simply Beautiful Wedding Hair. Best friends and family surrounded the bride while she was getting ready. The girls had arrived from various parts of the country and had stayed the night before the wedding. I particularly loved their matching blue and white pyjamas! Rebecca’s aunt and cousins had also arrived from Australia, which was terrific, and they were full of fun the whole morning, which zipped by in a flash.

The couple had booked a second photographer, and my friend and colleague Claire Williamson of Little Olives Photography joined me for the day. Claire spent the morning with the boys while they were getting ready in a local farmhouse. There was plenty of cheekiness and some shenanigans, which made Claires job much fun!

Pre-Loved Dress

Liz added some beautiful floral touches to Rebeccas hair, supplied by the florist Katherine Craft of Florist in the Forest. It was very fitting for the wedding style, with the palest of pink roses, fern and thistle across the back of her glorious soft up-do.

Rebecca’s bridesmaids helped her into her beautiful simple lace gown given to her by her cousin, who had worn it for her wedding. What a special thing to do!

Once the bride had her veil fixed in place, and we had taken a few photos of the family and the bridesmaids, the only thing left was for Rebecca to walk through the garden hedge to the church.

Eridge Chapel

Holy Trinity Church in Eridge is tiny! It’s such an intimate space and beautiful for a wedding. It’s always more challenging to keep out of the way in a small church, but I was lucky enough to be able to tuck myself next to the organist and still have a perfect view of the ceremony. Claire stayed at the back and captured the wider scene.

The weather was perfect, warm with intermittent sunshine, which shone down on the guests as they enjoyed their drinks in the garden after the ceremony.

The Floral Marquee

I headed into the marquee to capture all of the lovely details. There were long trestle tables dotted with beautiful garden flowers like Dahlias and Roses in jars. There was a line of birch trees and lots of pretty bunting; it was a stunning scene to photograph.

I explored the garden with the couple after a few family photos, and we made sure to incorporate lots of the flowers that Rebecca’s mum had carefully tended in the lead up to the wedding.

Claire and I had some downtime while the couple and their guests ate their meal, but we headed back into the marquee for the speeches. I knew Rebecca was due to change her dress for the evening, so I grabbed the couple for a few extra shots with the setting sun before she did so. As the sun dipped down beyond the horizon, there was an opportunity for a fantastic silhouette shot against the beautiful orange and pink sky. The timing was perfect!

It’s always good to check sunset times before a wedding so that you can be available should we be blessed with a beautiful evening just like Rebecca and Haydn had.

The Ceilidh

After cutting their simple floral adorned cake from Liz Chatfield of Sylvia’s Kitchen, the couple kicked off their evening with a good old Ceilidh! It seemed like every guest was squeezed on to the dancefloor for this hour of fun and laughter. The guests got into the spirit of it, and Ceilidhs always make for such wonderful photos.

Claire and I left this wedding on such a high, it was full of fun and laughter and an absolute joy to have photographed!